Can't wait for Windows Phone 7 Series, but can't hack the emulator, either? Don't lose hope, Windows junkies -- you can still bring some semblance of WP7S order into your life with this Metro UI-inspired desktop HUD. Based on the open-source desktop customization platform Rainmeter, the "Omnimo UI" will overlay your desktop with a minimalist, tiled interface not unlike the one you've been drooling over for weeks, with live hooks into many useful services (including Gmail, iTunes, Steam, Twitter and SpeedFan) as well as the usual widgets and a host of program shortcuts. The best news of all? It's available now for all versions of Windows since XP, completely free of charge; simply follow the source links or flit over to Lifehacker, where good folks will teach you how it's done.

If you haven’t heard of Rainmeter, it’s a popular freeware that enables some of the rich customization on your Windows desktop.

This is the tool that can push the desktop customization to the maximum. If you are really interested, be sure to check out their documentation first, as they have a nice explanation on what the whole product is about, and beginner guide for you to get started.

Yes, you can use Rainmeter to create your very own customized Windows Desktop.

Some basic customizations you can do with Rainmeter are

•add different skins;
•perfectly styled widgets, e.g. CPU, RAM, Network monitor, one click music player, RSS feeds, etc. on your desktop.
Although, it may sounds very much the same as the default Windows gadgets and sidebar, there are a fundamental differences:

1.You can use Rainmeter on Windows XP, as well as on Vista and 7.
2.You can have a totally different look for the widgets on every theme.
3.You can create your own widgets/themes/skins.
This is what the finished desktop looks like. Lets begin customizing your Windows 7 desktop and make it looks and feels like the Windows 7 Phone running on your desktop.

First, download and install the Rainmeter, be sure to download the right version if you are running on a 64-bit edition.

Next, download the additional Omnimo UI. This is the skin for Windows 7 Phone which you need to have to make it look like the picture above.

Run the Rainmeter first before doing anything, which creates the default directory for skins, themes, and backup. Do not run the Omnimo UI if you have never run Rainmeter before.

Now, exit the Rainmeter and launch the Omnimo UI Rainstaller.

Choose Express Install if you don’t want to change any default directory settings.

Once you’ve done this, you should now see Rainmeter launch with the newly added Theme called Omnimo UI. And this is exactly what you see on the first screen shoot.

You can now customize, to show which widgets, feed URL, clocks, weather, etc. you would like to have on the desktop.